Willy Prager was born on 23 May 1903 in Karlsruhe.
He studied civil engineering at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and received his diploma in 1925.
[1] He received his doctorate in 1926 and worked as a research assistant in the field of mechanics from 1925 to 1929.
Prager was also on a sabbatical at IBM's research lab in Zürich.
The Society of Engineering Science has awarded the William Prager Medal in Solid Mechanics since 1983 in his honor.